Nurses' strike in England to be cut short after court ruling

A 48-hour strike by nurses in England over the Bank Holiday weekend will be cut short by a day after a High Court judge ruled it was partly unlawful.

The walkout in a row over pay by the Royal College of Nursing, due to start on Sunday, will now end on Monday.

RCN chief Pat Cullen said this was "the darkest day" of the dispute so far and the government needed to negotiate.

Downing Street said it was "regrettable" the government had to go to court and it had tried to avoid it.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay took legal action after NHS Employers said the last day of the planned strike was not covered by the mandate as the ballots closed on 2 November at midday.

The judge Mr Justice Linden ordered the RCN to pay the costs of the hearing, saying the union had showed "a high degree of unreasonableness", the outcome was "inevitable" and "instead of grasping the nettle and conceding" it had forced the case to court.

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Source: BBC News, 27 April 2023